By Stan Smith
The Toronto Marlies took on the visiting Grand Rapids Griffins on Tuesday night in the first of two contests between the two teams in Toronto in six days.
I have to comment that anyone complaining about the NHL schedule would be flabbergasted by the AHL schedule. While the Marlies sit at home for five days between the two contests with Grand Rapids, the Griffins take the six-hour drive to Toronto and then travel on to Belleville to take on the Senators on Friday and Saturday before returning to Toronto to take on the Marlies on Sunday. As if playing three games in three days isn’t bad enough, the Saturday game between the Griffins and the Senators has a 7:00 pm start and the Sunday game in Toronto is an afternoon 4:00 pm game. They then have the six-hour drive back to Grand Rapids.
On that note, AHL teams can carry as many players as they want on their roster; and, I can see why. The Marlies’ website lists 32 players on their roster, 20 forwards, nine defensemen, and three goalies. That does not include the six players on the Maple Leafs’ active roster who started the season with the Marlies and were subsequently called up for various reasons.
I don’t know how many players a team would need to play three games in three nights but I can imagine the Griffins’ bus must be pretty crowded.
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Back to Tuesday’s Game Between the Griffins and the Marlies
Let me rewrite the text to make it clearer and correct any errors:
Let’s go back to the game played on Tuesday between the Griffins and the Marlies. It was a back-and-forth game with the two teams trading goals throughout the first two periods. Dimitri Ovchinnikov got the Marlies on the board first, when he scored six minutes into the game. The goal was assisted by Zach Solow and Pontus Holmberg.
That lead lasted all of 1:40 as Joel L’Esperance replied for the Griffins. Mikko Kokonnen put the Marlies up 2-1 with just 1:08 left in the first period with a wrist shot from the point that alluded a former Marlie’s and Maple Leafs’ goalie Michael (Guess Who?) Hutchinson.
The Marlies came out of an evenly played first period with a 2-1 lead. The shots were 10-9 for Toronto.
The Griffins Tie the Game in the Second Period
Albert Johansson tied the game up for Grand Rapids at the midpoint of the second period. Three minutes later, Kyle Clifford scored on what might be one of the ugliest breakaways I have ever seen. Logan Shaw finds Clifford behind the Griffins’ defence and hits him with a pass up the middle. Clifford never really gets control of the puck. He bats it forward while shrugging off one Griffins’s defender, and gets his stick on it again while shrugging off a second defender. Clifford catches up to the puck and manages a weak wrist shot that trickles between Hutchinson’s legs.
The shots in the second period were 11-11 and the Marlies led 3-2 after two.
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The Marlies Looked Like They Were Headed for Their Seventh Straight Loss
Early in the third period, it appeared as though the Marlies were on track to lose their seventh consecutive game. At 2:35 of the period, Zach Solow, covering Taro Hirose in front of the Toronto net, got his elbow up into Hirose’s face. It did not look vicious or intentional but Hirose went down in a heap on the ice. With the referee’s arm up the Griffins pulled Hutchinson and the play continued six-on-five for 50 seconds in the Toronto zone before Jonatan Berggren found the back of the net through a crowd of players to tie the game at three.
Usually, when a team scores 6-on-5 with a penalty about to be scored the penalty is negated. But, after the four officials on the ice consulted they decided Solow’s elbow on Hirose was deserving of a five-minute major and a game misconduct. With the major penalty call, it meant Grand Rapids would have a total of 5:50 of time with an extra attacker. The 50 seconds that already had before they scored and the remaining five minutes where they could score as many goals as they could.
To make things more dire for the Marlies, the Griffins scored to go ahead 4-3 just 1:09 into the five minutes. They were pumped. The Griffins were flying, and the Marlies were just barely holding on.
The Marlies Managed to Hold On
But, hold on they did. They killed the remaining four minutes with the help of goalie Dennis Hildeby, who made some big saves to keep the score 4-3.
The Griffins shut things down pretty tight allowing the Marlies just four shots in the third period. But, one of those shots just happened to be defenseman William Villeneuve’s first goal of the season. While the goal was scored on a nice pass by Kokkonen and the nicer shot by Villeneuve, the Marlies were probably lucky the play worked. Kokkonen was behind the net on the play when he found Villeneuve in front of the Griffins’ net. That meant that both Marlies’ defensemen were deep in the Grand Rapids zone.
That goal sent the game into overtime. The only shot of the extra frame wasn’t much of a shot. After Abruzzese created a turnover inside the Marlies’ blue line he got the puck to Joseph Blandisi. Blandisi and Abrizzese broke in 2 on 1 on Hutchinson. The Griffins’s defenseman covered Abruzzese, taking the pass option away from Blandisi. Instead, Blandisi stick-handled the puck past and around Hutchinson to win the game and break the Marlies’ six-game losing streak. The final score was 5-4 Marlies.
Marlies Player Notes
Dennis Hildeby
Despite sporting a 1.63 goals-against-average (GAA) and a 0.935 save percentage, Hildeby’s record was just .500 going into this game. For once Hildeby got some goal support from the team. Three times this season, Hildeby has kept the opposing team to two or fewer goals in regulation and ended up with a loss. It seems fitting that, in Hildeby’s worst game of the season and the first time he has given up four goals in a game, the team comes through with enough goals to win the game.
Joseph Blandisi
Blandisi was deserving of the first star of the game. He not only scored the winning goal in overtime, he added two assists in the game as well. One assist came on Kokkonen’s goal in the first and another when he made a strong defensive play to get the puck to Shaw. That was before Shaw hit Clifford with the breakaway pass in the second period. With his three points in the game, Blandisi is now tied with Shaw and Abruzzese for second in Marlies scoring. Each player has 14 points. Alex Steeves still leads with 19 points.
Blandisi has the best plus/minus rating on the Marlies at plus-11. Clifford (with 1 goal, 1 assist), Kokkonen ( with 1 goal, 1 assist), and Shaw (with 2 assists) all had multiple-point games.
Topi Niemela
While he did not figure into the scoring, Topi Niemela was noticeable for good reasons in this game due to his defensive play. While he is strong offensively and leads the Marlies’ defence in points with 12 in 18 games, Niemela has struggled defensively at times this season. He is a smallish 6-foot-0 and 180 pounds. By the eye test looks smaller than that. He is not physically imposing and can get outmuscled by larger forwards.
This game showed that Niemela is finding other ways to be successful without the puck. He had a couple of key blocks in the game and got his stick in the way of some shots and passes. Niemela saved one sure goal by getting his stick in front of a wide-open net shot. He also broke up some plays by timing stick-lifts of opposing players. If Niemela can use his hand/eye coordination defensively he might be able to play a puck-centric game like T.J. Brodie.
What’s Next?
The Marlies have five days of practices to get ready for the Griffins’ return on Sunday. Hopefully, they can take advantage of a tired Grand Rapids team on their way back from Belleville.
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